Tuition fee protest

movilogo

What is the situation?

At present, tuition fee in England is ~ £3300 per year

The LibDem said they would abolish tuition fee.

Then ConLib raised it to £6000 per year (or up to £9000 to some cases). :mad:

So students are protesting.

There may be a debate whether their way of protesting could have been different, but I think morally they are right to protest.

PS: University courses are subsidised in most of the coutries incl. emerging economies like India/China.

Really2

movilogo wrote: »

So students are protesting.

There may be a debate whether their way of protesting could have been different, but I think morally they are right to protest.

They do have a right to protest, not a right to assault and cause criminal damage.

If they are too thick to work that one out it just shows why perhaps university should not be free for all.

If they are meant to be some of the cleverest in society perhaps they need to understand how to get public sympathy.

As usual the hard core enraged socialists manage to lower public sympathy to a cause.

Really2

I have a question on fees which I do not know the answer to.

How many countries ranked above us pay higher fees than the UK?

I know schools have slipped back 11 places since 2000 a time we have been spending more on schools than ever.

Could it be possible state funding takes away competition and can be detrimental to the education system.
Perhaps state funding makes students put up with mediocre tutors etc?

Will paying for education mean people want more? if so is that a bad thing?

The better our system is in the future should mean it can get more state funding in the future (better education should = better paid students)

Cleaver

movilogo wrote: »

There may be a debate whether their way of protesting could have been different, but I think morally they are right to protest.

In my humble opinion there isn't really much of a debate to be had about what is wrong and right in this situation.

Right: peaceful yet robust protest.
Wrong: criminal damage of any type.

abaxas

How about we provide education, not send more people to university.

Controversial, but might work.

CloudCuckooLand

Might help cut university costs, if they didn't have to repeat half the syllabus for a basic education before starting on the real course...

ILW

Just increase the eligibilty criteria so that only the truly brightest go to university.

Pennywise

But why should someone who goes to Uni get their education free when someone who leaves school, gets a job, and studies alongside working (or their employers) have to pay?

I studied and qualified as an accountant after leaving school. My employers paid for basic course costs, exam fees and text books (many thousands of pounds) in return for me being paid a very low salary for 5 years. Not only that, two years I went to college on day release and lost a day's pay accordingly for it. I also used my annual holiday entitlement to take time off ahead of exams for final revision. There was NO government support for me at all. I financed my own higher education.

My OH did exactly the same - years of low pay alongside evening college, at very high cost.

I think university students have had it too cushy for too long. Having to pay more for their degrees should make them think harder about what courses they are to do and whether they should go at all. Too many students just go to Uni as an extension of schooling with no real idea of their future career - if higher fees make them spend a little longer thinking about their future, then all the better.

movilogo

Just increase the eligibilty criteria so that only the truly brightest go to university.

Then the idiots will shout that they are being discriminated for their less IQ.

Having to pay more for their degrees should make them think harder about what courses they are to do and whether they should go at all.

With less education available to UK students, more and more jobs will go overseas as employers claim they are not getting enought "qualified" candidates to do the job.

Remember, a foreign graduate may be no more capable than a local diploma candidate. Yet, employers often choose the former over the later (especially when we have open door immigration policy).

pinkteapot

Agree whole-heartedly with Pennywise.

Hopefully this will also turn university into more of a market-place, with different institutions charging different fees. There are some degree courses out there that simply aren't worth the same as others, either in terms of subsequent earnings potential or the quality of the education and experience. These will surely have to charge less in the future or go bust. I went to Oxford when tuition fees were capped at £1k per year and I count myself extremely lucky as what I got was worth so much more than that.

The new proposals are really a capped graduate tax under a different name. Loans will be available to pay the higher fees so it's not like you need the cash up front yourself. You take out a loan with repayment terms that are in no way like a personal debt. You don't repay until you earn £21k a year and then you repay a percentage of your salary. If you stop earning at any point, repayments stop. The debt is written off eventually if not repaid. It therefore acts like a graduate tax but you stop paying it once the cost of your course has been repaid. The trick is going to be making prospective students understand this because 'debt' has such negative connotations.

Really2

movilogo wrote: »

Then the idiots will shout that they are being discriminated for their less IQ.

NDG Style, lower.